| 1 |
AEN project provided an opportunity to carry out a national assessment of institutions in Zambia dealing with environmental information. The last assessment had been conducted in 1997 and changes had since occurred in many organisations. This assessment was therefore, useful in understanding the current situation. Some of the identified issues during the assessment were that: |
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The mandate for environmental reporting in Zambia may not be adequately carried out due to the absence of an environmental policy and legal framework for managing environmental information and reporting . |
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Most institutions have the capacity to produce environmental information. They have skilled human resources for collecting and managing environmental information but however lack skills in Geo Information |
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The absence of standards and protocols for information sharing needs should be addressed. Data handling requires some form of standards and protocols for data sharing with defined frequency, cost elements and quality for institutions participating in the AEIN. This is not the case for Zambia at the moment. |
| 2 |
The mandate for overall environmental management in Zambia lies with ECZ, through such areas as Integrated Environmental Assessment and Reporting and other information products. AEIN initiative highlighted the need to build internal capacity in national collaborating centers such as ECZ to manage environmental information as well as provide external capacity and collaborative mechanisms for external data generators and users |
| 3 |
AEIN implementation at national level should support new and old institutions dealing in environmental information. In addition, incentives should be built into the initiative to attract major data providers to fully participate in the network through such means as financing data collection and demands for ICT skills and infrastructure |
